Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Another blowout loss

USA Today Sports Images

CHICAGO — Jordan Zimmermann insists he feels fine. There's nothing wrong with his arm, and the 95 mph fastballs he threw Monday night would seem to confirm that. And the right-hander says his neck, a problem earlier this summer, isn't an issue right now.

So, what are we to make of Zimmermann's performance over the last six weeks? After serving as a punching bag for the Cubs' previously punch-less lineup during an 11-1 blowout loss, the one-time ace of the Nationals staff finds himself in a legitimate, long-term funk.

On July 1, Zimmermann was named an All-Star for the first time in his career. He sported an 11-3 record, a 2.28 ERA and an 0.94 WHIP, all of which ranked among the NL's best. In eight starts since, Zimmermann is now 3-4 with a 5.30 ERA and 1.59 WHIP.

If he's fine physically, how does he explain the last six weeks?

"Just pretty much location," Zimmermann said. "I'm not hitting my spots right now. The fastball's up. I've got to do a better job of locating."Read more

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Looking at the pitchers tonight, it was hard to see much of a difference between them, even with my having seen so much of zimmermann. I think we often overestimate pitching match-ups. Baseball is very random.

Looking at the current roster and how the players came here and who they replaced. 9 of the 25 players are new which is over 33% of the roster has changed which is enormous considering the Nats had the best record in baseball last year and none of these moves were due to injury.

I see no point to Dejesus trade. I continue to be amazed at how this club is performing both on and off the field. Why Rizzo dismantled last year's team is beyond me?

At one point I had faith in Rizzo's management but I have serious doubts now. He is making too many mistakes. Notwithstanding the off years some players are having this team is weaker than last year's team.

Rizzo absorbed a big salary for Suzuki this year then was able to dodge his $8.5 million 2014 salary by making sure his vesting option didnt kick in and will only cost him $650,000. Rizzo appeared to be on the path of redeeming some poor salary decisions.

Rizzo is already on the hook for over paying Rafael Soriano which was a move at the time that nobody really understood since it cost Rizzo his 1st round draft pick. It still doesnt explain the big overpay.

On top of that Rizzo took on a Mendoza specialist in Scott Hairston and his 2014 salary obligation of $2.5 million while giving up a decent A ball pitcher.

Now Rizzo complicates things with a waiver claim of DeJesus that makes little sense. He traded for a player that wasnt needed and now is on the hook for a $1.5 buyout next year or his salary of $6.5 million.

I hear Theo Epstein next trade will be his bat boy to Rizzo for only $1 million. The kid is said to be great at applying pine tar.

If the DeJesus acquistion was a "wavier-claim mistake", why did the Nats agreed to a compensate the Cubs with a PTNL? The team could have just offered nothing to kill the deal, or force the Cubs to accept the claim without compensation.

"It's frustrating," Ryan Zimmerman said. "But there's really no one way to look at it to figure out why it's happened or what's happened. Because if we knew, it wouldn't be happening. Baseball is a funny sport. You just gotta keep going out there and trying to get better and finish the season strong."

I was saying last night that the handling of Tyler Moore is just atrocious. Is he our future 1b or not? Let's find out or trade him. ALR looks exhausted anyway. And he arrived with a hot bat, which is cooling off as we speak. Makes no sense at all. If the regulars are not doing anything, and they have had plenty of time, let the younger players show their stuff and gain experience.

On DeJesus, maybe Rizzo is banking that other clubs have interest in him to the point where he can quickly move the guy for something more special than he's giving to Hoyer?? $2.5M for 40 games of a back-up OF is pretty wacked.

I gave up last night at 4-0. Do I get the firsties prize? Not counting Cunegonde, who decided she'd rather go pay some bills than watch JZ struggling?

Yeah, Z stank last night, but even if he'd given up only 2 runs, they still would have lost, because these guys have zero plate discipline. Only smart AB I saw was Harper's first, where he served the ball into the opposite field as neatly as Wade Boggs or Derek Jeter ever did. Thing of beauty.

Surrounded by eight jerks swinging as hard as they could at anything in the same ZIP code as the plate. Was it my imagination or did Desmond swing at a throwover to first?

Dave CameronCan Nats Make Miracle Playoff Run?"Even if the Nationals' offense doesn't get more hits in the next six weeks than it has in the first four and a half months, a simple redistribution of when those hits occur should lead to more runs and more wins. It probably won't be enough to catch the Braves, but the Nationals have enough talent on hand to make one final run. It won't be easy to run down the three NL Central contenders and potentially Arizona as well, but the Nationals aren't dead quite yet. If anyone is going to pull off a miracle comeback this year, it's probably going to be the team in D.C.”

"If the regulars are not doing anything, and they have had plenty of time, let the younger players show their stuff and gain experience."

Davey could, at least, platoon Moore and ALR. Moore could have a brilliant future, or not, but they should take the opportunity to find out ASAP. La Roche is not part of the Nats' future beyond next season, if that, and he has not justified his salary this year. I continue to not understand why Davey persists in pursuing losing strategies.

As for the De Jesus anomaly (claiming him off waivers and immediately placing him back on waivers) I have no clue. My BA in predicting what Rizzo will do is lower than Espinosa's BA in the minors. I prefer to predict what he will not do, and he will not pay $6.5 mn for a 4th outfielder next year.

He has a lot of work to do in the off-season, starting with Davey's replacement. It seems to me that Davey has stepped back and allowed Randy some leeway in the dugout. Could be that the decision has already been made, and Randy is getting his feet wet in preparation for next year. Or maybe it's just an audition.

I hope Ghost is right about trading ALR, although I don't know how Rizzo would package a deal to make it attractive to a any potential taker.

They are way out of contention, and by September a fork will be sticking out of Screech's tail feathers. Let the kids play. The vets have screwed up the whole year, with the notable exception of the rotation and the lion-hearted Jayson Werth.

Good luck Shark. They don't come any better, or more professional, or more athletic. Bernie proved you can be all of that and still not be able to play baseball. That is why it is the toughest team sport of them all. If there was any justice, he would have been a star.

It probably won't happen, but it's fun to read, and about all we have left--fantasies.

I think RZ is right. You can't tell with baseball. Sabean kept the World Champions together, they are in last place. Rizzo added a few pieces to an already solid team-- now below .500. Angels, Blue Jays...

"Only smart AB I saw was Harper's first, where he served the ball into the opposite field as neatly as Wade Boggs or Derek Jeter ever did. Thing of beauty."

I noticed the same thing. A 20-year-old kid has already learned what a 9-year pro has failed to learn by the age of 27.

I would not include Werth as one of the "eight jerks," though. He is the most patient and selective of the Nats' hitters, except, perhaps, for Anthony Rendon, who is as precocious in his approach as Harper.

These Nats still have a great future. The franchise is loaded with great young talent. Some of those kids on the GCL team with a season-long .800+ winning percentage will grow up, like Giolito, Bautista and Ward and, perhaps, some others.

The Nats are not LA. For all the criticism of Mike Rizzo, he has not saddled the franchise with long-term contracts for former All-Stars, like Hamilton and Pujols. He has paid big bucks mostly for short-term commitments, as he did for ALR and Soriano, and he has gradually restocked the farm system with younger guys who can be developed into the next batch of Nats stars. Even the DSL Nats are holding their own.

And someone remind me who built up the Nats' presence in the Dominican Republic? That investment is eventually going to pay off for the Nats.

Actually it would not have mattered a whole lot what the pitchers did - we scored once -- on a solo home run. And for those of you who "predicted " this -- congratulations. I can tell that you care a lot about being right. Does that comfort you during losses? You can attribute this season to anything you want. We did have some pitcher health issues, we have had some personnel changes, some things just did not work out, lots of people underperformed. It happens.

Interesting case with Jordan -- last year he was pitcher of the month and then faltered. This year he was phenomenal and chosen to be an all star - articles popping up about his private life. Makes me wonder if he cannot handle attention and lack of privacy. It's ok JZ - we can pretend to ignore you. But then again, even Verlander has had issues this year, Lincecum - former cy young winners. Dominant pitching is a ridiculously difficult thing to sustain with all the scouting resources out there to combat your stuff. Wondering if it's not the neck, but some late season dead arm. First it's the hitters,especially the bench , then the pen, sometimes the starters. Seems like we can never have all the planets align.

Laddie, $6.5 million is fine for a 4th outfielder if he's Michael Morse or that type of impact not DeJesus who's worth about $3 million given the playing time available but the 4th outfielder this team needs is a RH who can actually play defense and that's not Hairston.

That player needs to be a strict platoon with Denard but can play LF where you shift Bryce to CF.

Most telling statement: "Some of them have a slow learning curve." Meaning, "I've got some guys who're dumber'n a bagful of hammers."

Memo to your children prepping for the SATs and filling out college application forms: "You might have to be smart to get into UVA but not necessarily smart when you get out."

I tried to tell people a few weeks ago there was a real chance none of the present Nats starters would be part of the 2016 rotation. Cumulatively the chances are at least one of them will stick around. But, individually, there is a good chance as to each of them the Nats will decide they're not worth paying to keep them around. Z'mann is making his case now.

And, with regards to the bench, with Davey leaving and a new manager coming in shouldn't he have some say in the roster? As Parcells said, "if you want me to cook you dinner you should at least let me buy some of the ingredients (or something like that)".

Have always heard Davey described as a player's manager but you could have fooled me. Never misses a chance to trash the players or reveal a confidence. I know NatsJack loves the guy, but I see very poor leadership qualities. I cannot wait to see what someone else can do with this team. They have a lot of talent but have been badly organized and managed from the start of ST. I hope we have a manager who is not the star in the room or a "character". I think they have needed more than funny stories and being called dumb.

DeJesus might be worth only $3MM given the "available at bats" but he'll probably fetch more than that on a one-year deal as a FA, because a lot of teams have coveted him over the past few years -- and he's two years younger than Werth.

Over their history the Nats have built their bench by dumpster diving (DeRosa, Nady, Stairs, Tracy, minor leaguers on non-negotiable contracts). While over-spending for so-called frontline "talent" (e.g., Soriano) they have insisted on buying their bench at Dollar General.

The starting eight is now so shaky they need to be willing to spend above the market, for guys (DeJesus?) who might be able to start three-quarters of the season if the bottom falls out for LaRoche, Span, et al. (What are they going to do if/when that guy at 3B morphs into Mark Reynolds?)

I would argue that, push come to shove, the option on DeJesus is not far out of line. Putting him back on waivers says only they don't want to have to exercise the option but they would do so rather than allow another team to sign him for $3MM (or in the vicinity).

Keep in mind that 7-8 teams passed on DeJesus before the Nats' claim rose to the top. Anyone who claims him now will likely be a bigger fish with better bait.

baseballswami, I think Davey is a motivator that believed in positive mental attitude and it went out the window after Game 5 and he was exposed. He tried to sell it again with his humor and World Series or Bust just like his Fire Me If We Don't Make The Playoffs in 2012.

It didn't work and his throwing players under the bus and falling asleep at the wheel is the ugly reminder along with the W/L record of the 2013 season.

Of course the poor personnel decisions and individual performances can't all be pinned on Davey.

For any other Insiders who happen to be in Chicago tonight, I will be sitting in the first row right behind the visitor's dugout on the aisle. I'll be wearing my usual shirt, so it will be easy to identify me--at least from the back.

here is he proof on how poor Rizzo stacks up with the rest of the league.... explain how the Braves retooled this season, remember, last year many thought the Braves were in their twilight and the run of 90 plus wins a season was over.... how wrong they were...Braves are significantly better than nats today....that is all on the bald headed stooge

One more day of hostess/sightseeing duties (yay), so maybe I'll get to watch some real-time baseball tomorrow. Probably not much, though, given the 8:00 start. Thursday is a day game, though, so could see that - if I get caught up with other stuff. Maybe I'll even catch up on posts and comments after that. Nah, probably not. Will try to hit the ground running with new posts, though. After tomorrow. If I'm not exhausted by then. I'm tired. Tired of being - wait. Who am I, Lili von Sht - but I digress. Later, folks. :-)

I just don't understand the DeJesus acquisition. Why did Rizzo immediately put him on waivers? If he really believed the Nats still have a chance for the playoffs (delusional), why did he wait until now to upgrade his bench? He screwed up with the waiver claim somehow, but I can't understand exactly how. I'm starting to lose a bit of confidence in Rizzo. Can someone explain why he would give up a PTBNL just to put DeJesus on waivers?

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About the Author

Mark Zuckerman has covered the Nationals since the franchise arrived in D.C. He's been a member of the Baseball Writers' Association of America since 2001 and is a Hall of Fame voter. Email mzuckerman@comcastsportsnet.com.